help with steam

[Guest]

Its pretty safe to say that everyone here is almost completely anti-steam. This makes me happy
See the little green man smiling for us all

[Hot Trout]

I'm sorry, but steam is like being told I have a square inch hole to piss into from across the room. Lord help me if I miss from 15 feet away; get a drop anywhere else, and we'll cut it off for you so you never miss again. T_T

An excellent analogy sir.

[Kherr]

I bought Portal when it first came out by itself on PC, I still had dial up then, and I swore off Steam after I realized my $20 had been wasted on a download that was going to take 48 hours. I have done the same thing for Command and Conquer 4, I won't get it unless there is a workaround for the internet required thing. The site I use all the time for my no-disc hacks is Game Copy World. I was looking for an anti SecuROM workaround for Sims 2, because I use Daemon Tools to run an image of other games (Elder Scrolls 4) that aren't protected, and SecuROM didn't like that. They have workarounds for most games, for both using disc images and no disc at all, a rather useful thing for playing on the go, so I don't have to carry 10-15 discs around with me.

Don't forget to check on http://www.piratebay.org for workarounds and cracks as well.

I'm sorry, but steam is like being told I have a square inch hole to piss into from across the room. Lord help me if I miss from 15 feet away; get a drop anywhere else, and we'll cut it off for you so you never miss again. T_T

An excellent analogy sir.

Why thank you... But seriously... Steam is just like that... T_T

[JAHGoVeg]

Don't forget to check on http://www.piratebay.org for workarounds and cracks as well.

YES GO PIRATE BAY!!!

[crustyasp46]

WWW.STEAMPOWERED.COM - Reviews & Testimonials
The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of XOM Reviews

Stay away from Steampowered

As a consumer that just discovered the SteamPowered website, I was under the impression that this was a online store that I can buy and download games from.

Well, the catch is, although you download the software to your computer, you still need to log in through their website in order to access and run the software. They give you a little program to do this.

When you run this program, it will need to 'update itself' and to accomplish this, you need to provide it with your administration rights, so that it can download the software to an alias HD copy that it creates in your applications folder. This is different than authorizing something to be downloaded.

Sorry if I don't want to give this company access to my computer. So, I did not download any software and and requested a refund - since I did not take possession of the software.

They continue to respond to my emails with inane responses as if I had trouble downloading or something.

Gamers beware. Search the web for other complaints about this company before you send them money.

Posted By: Howling, on Monday, May 24, 2010
www.steampowered.com FRAUD
Whatever you do, don't use Steampowered.com to purchase and download anything. I tried to download two games through this company just prior to Christmas.

After I completed the transaction with my credit card, I was expecting to download a zip or compressed version of the two games files (Fallout 3 and GRID) which could be downloaded at a reasonable rate. Instead, STEAM required me to download the Steam Application. I thought this was simply a download manager that would assist with the decompression of such large data file downloads. I soon realized this was not the case.

The STEAM Application is actually a secure download portal that requires users to connect to the internet and RUN the game THROUGH this framework. But I was never even able to get that far.

When I began the download of GRID, I learned that the file load was so severe (14 Gigabytes), it would overload my Verizon Wireless data contract. Then, I realized that the two games would take 48 hours to completely download. I have extremely fast internet and can handle steaming video and games online. But the STEAMPOWERED.COM server is so slow... well, who wants to wait 2 days to play?

I live in a rural area, taking me 3 hours to drive to the nearest store to purchase the two games. I searched STEAM's support pages for information about getting the software delivered by mail. However, they explicitly do NOT ship software CDs directly.

Why would I want to run a game program THROUGH the STEAM Application, BINDED to the internet, WAIT 48 hours to download them, and INCUR hundereds of dollars in internet bandwidth overage fees and restrictions? For two games?!

I canceled the download of that first game, didn't bother to download the second, and completely uninstalled that STEAM Application.

I submitted a refund request with their Steam Support Online System, but they responded that they DO NOT grant refunds!!
BELOW IS A DIRECT COPY OF THE EMAIL I RECEIVED FROM STEAMPOWERED.COM, IN WHICH THEY DENY MY RIGHT TO A REFUND.

"Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello Marnie,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

As with most software products, we will not offer refunds for purchases made online as outlined in the software license - please review Section 4 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement for more information.

We will make an exception for pre-ordered games if the request is received prior to the release date.

This message was sent by the Steam Support helpdesk.
Posted By: marniehartill, on Monday, December 29, 2008

Older posts, but it raises a red flag in my head whether true or false , to me it is not worth the risk!

[Hot Trout]

Dont start me about steam. I get angry every time I talk about them. My case is a very long story that involved them banning my account because they claimed I was using a cheat. Their 'client program' had discovered a peice of software called TSEARCH on my machine that I use and have used for many years for diagnosis. It turns out that it is also used by gamers to monitor memory addresses in an attempt to cheat.

Did steam ask me why I used it, erm no. Instead they just automatically assumed that I must be using it to cheat and VAC banned my account. This in turn prevented me from playing COD Modern Warfare II that I had purchased full retail from a store.

I email them oficially through their registered support forums over a year ago and have still to this day got nothing back from them.

To make things worse, I purchased the game again after being banned the first time (at this stage I was not aware that it was caused by TSEARCH), played for a few weeks and then got banned again. Another £29 down the drain.

I always loved COD games and had purchased everyone up to that point. Needless to say I have not purchased Black Ops because of STEAM and I will never buy a STEAM reliant game again.

STEAM are crooks, what gives them the right to stop me from playing a game that I paid £29 for

[crustyasp46]

I agree with Hot Trout , if I buy a game and want to use a cheat or not, or any other program I choose to put on my computer, that is my choice to make or not, take the spyware that they want to shove down my throat, and stick it up their "where the sun don't shine area.

And the other point I would like to make, and am going to lobby for is that any game, program or installable media that has to have third party approval to install, that they have to state the fact in large print on the front of the package. Not hidden away in the smallest print on the back of the item that is totally unreadable in a store setting under fluorescent lighting, and even the salespeople can not read it to be able to tell you if you need steam to install.

How many, non serious gamers, have bought a game, taken it home , and not been able to use it or just get so frustrated trying to register with dial up or lack of internet, and just don't want to lug their desktop to a neighbors just to install a frigging game that they have bought and paid for. Or don't even know about steam.

Microsoft treats its' customers with kid gloves compared to steam.

Privacy policy, read it in full, there is no privacy policy for the customer, because as it reads, they can change the policy without notice. And suggest that you see the latest update for any change to the policy I found. That leaves me feeling a whole bunch of confidence in their site, NOT!

[Kherr]

I ended up submitting to steam because I wanted Garry's Mod and Audiosurf primarily. I really didn't want to have to keep pirating shit because eventually I'm going to get caught and I don't look forward to that day... So I'm dealing with Steam as of now, but I have to say, I actually find that steam has changed in the way that the program doesn't cause any issues on performance like it used to. Also it's nice having a friends manager and in-game overlay that allows me to browse the web really quick while in a fullscreen game so I don't have to alt-tab and hope that the game doesn't crash. I still hate steam's policies though. Just grown to find out that the actual USE of the program isn't as bad as it used to be.